Two years ago, almost exactly, I had my driver side door replaced due to a collision. Just a couple of days later, the window motor broke. The body shop kindly replaced it for free. Yesterday, it broke again. I thought these things were supposed to last 5-7 years. I believe the body shop put a used on in. Yesterday, the mechanic had gotten the window into the “up” position. Then he says, “You can either give me $10 for the vice grips we put inside your door to hold it up, or $140 for a new regulator.” Is it wrong to ask why this thing went out after 2 years? I’m tempted to give him the ten bucks. After all, it’s Winter.
You don’t mention the vehicle make, model or year. I have 3 Toyotas from '91 to '04 and none of them have ever had a power window motor replaced. I’ve had 2 Oldmobiles and a GMC van and never replaced a motor.
After the door repair, did it sound like the motor had a hard time getting the window up or down? Maybe the window is not in the channel properly. Can you use a motor from the back door? I’d rather my driver window rolled down than the back window.
I think you need a new mechanic. A good one won’t repair your car by using vice grips as the solution.
The window regulator is the actual mechanism that raises and lowers the window glass. The repair that your mechanic #2 did was to lock the window in its channel in the up position indicating that the regulator failed. On some car models the motor can be replaced separate from the regulator. So you might have a new motor driving the old regulator which is now broken.
BTW, when the driver’s window failed, did the motor run but nothing happened? Did the window drop to the bottom and stay there?
In a lot of cars the motor and regulator come as a unit but the combo usually runs higher than $300 new.
Hope this helps.